Marketplace for Monday, May 27, 2013

Memorial Day kicks off the summer travel season and while Americans may indulge in an occasional long weekend, Europeans are gearing up for several weeks of vacation. Here in the U.S., companies like Time Warner Cable and Yahoo are reportedly bidding between $600 million and $800 million for video streaming service Hulu. U.S. military applications are up as youth unemployment continues to soar, so military recruiters are fine-tuning the admissions process. And Mexico's economy is booming and now big companies targeting the U.S. market are relocating from China.

As focus shifts to Internet video as a profit model, Yahoo has its eyes on Hulu. But it needs to get in line. DirecTV, Time Warner Cable, and at least three private equity firms also hope to acquire the subscription-based video service.

The company Better Place is liquidating, after a failed attempt to make electric cars with batteries to swap in and out. Problem is, e-vehicles are still expensive. And fossil fuel prices in the recent downturn have softened.

It’s a good time to be a recruiter for the U.S. military. Applications are up, as youth unemployment continues to soar. And the Pentagon doesn’t need as many people as it did at the height of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.